Day Twenty Six: 'driving home on boxing day with neil looking up at the mountains' by Red Newsom

'driving home on boxing day with neil looking up at the mountains'

through the roar of the heater we plough

into the mouth of the mountains

listening to something called

punk-funk and talking about the novel

you will never write, i saw the way

the weather had fallen and frozen

over the countryside.

and you said:

“when you look at snow

it is really interesting.

it makes clear something

that you'd never otherwise see,

which are the little eddies and currents in the wind.

there are all these tiny weather fractions going on

that we totally miss. micro-worlds.

i suppose that's like life more generally.

you should write a poem about that.”

Red Newsom

Day Twenty Five: 'You Better Watch Out!' by Anna McCrory

'You better watch out!'

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
But don’t feel contented instead please beware,
Because soon that old creep Santa Claus is there.

I know what you’re thinking ‘he’s just a kind old man’,
But don’t let him fool you, of course that’s his plan.
So it is only my duty to suggest ways to divert,
the world’s most successful and most famous pervert.

Now don’t be surprised, come on surely a man creeping
around your house watching you while you’re sleeping.
Is at the very least a cause for concern,
no matter how many gifts he leaves under the fern.

And you know from the songs just what he’s done
he’s even managed to get off with your mum!
so look out for the red suit, the reindeer and sleigh
And don’t let this man ruin your Christmas day!

There’s a million ways to wipe off his smile
Why not fortify your house, home alone style
or at least block your chimney with rolls of barbed wire,
or replace it all together with an electric fire.

Why not place in your kitchen a highly trained sniper,
or let loose near the tree a poisonous viper.
Perhaps speak to an expert; one who has mastered,
the ideal way to take out the bastard!

So in your house keep a hit man to get rid of the sod!
Or else buy a Rottweiler and let him do the job!
Why not instead take your glade motion sensor
filled with poisonous gas to knock out the old lecher

There really is no end to the ways you can keep,
this creep out your house so you actually sleep.
And only at last when he finally takes flight
Can you wish, “Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!”

Day Twenty Four: 'Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards (2011 Version)' by Billy Bragg

'Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards - 2011 Version'

It may have been Camelot for Clegg and Cameron
But on Coalition Cul-de-Sac there’s not much business going on
Youth unemployment’s rising and factories are failing,
Public servants marching, Europeans need help bailing
Things have not been this bad since the days of Margaret Thatcher
So keep calm and carry on watching X Factor

In the former Soviet Union the citizens demand
To know why they’re still the target of Strategic Air Command
And they shake their fist in anger and respectfully suggest
We take the money from Trident and spend it on the NHS

High up in the Stock Exchange they’re knocking back the champers
While Boris Johnson Boulevard has been colonized by campers
Who want to ask some questions about the way that we do business
In the twilight of the capitalist system

The world wide web is wonderful if you’ve got something to sell
But opinions often summon up a focus group from Hell
Best not to be distracted, stay focused on your goals
And take my advice – don’t feed the trolls

Jumble sales are organized and charity shops open
The Tories keep on telling us that it’s Britain that is broken
Time to get active with the activists so switch off World of Warcraft
And start working for the Great Leap Forwards

One leap forwards, two leaps back
Chuck out Berlusconi and put in a technocrat
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards

Here comes the future and you can’t run back from it
If you’ve got a smartphone, I’ve got an app for it
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards

In a perfect world we’d all sing in tune
But this is reality so switch off the auto-tune
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards

It’s a mighty long way down rock’n’roll
From Top of the Pops to Strictly Come Pole Dancing
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards

If no-one out there understands,
Start your own Occupation and cut out the middleman
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards

So join the struggle while you may
The revolution is just a tea towel away…

Billy Bragg

Day Twenty Three: 'Christmas Steps' by Gerry Potter

'Christmas Steps'

Glorious steps lit by kings
Leave a Christmas imprint and crunch.
In the fib of legends, warmth.

"Follow me pauper and I'll line your stomach gold.
Gold more precious than stew
More precious than shelter
More precious than vocation.
A gold for fire-side stories and song."

A money metal for money feasts
Keeping you wanting and grateful.
A tinsel noose wrapped around the neck of mothers
Is strange fruit for trees,
Baubles hung fatal.

Follow him pauper
Into the cull of charity and debt
And let the season of goodwill reign.
Its warm in the hollow of promises
In the desolation of myth.

He'll jolly a laugh and raise a glass
As you turn your heating down.
He'll be your king and gorge
While you freeze to death in his footsteps.

Gerry Potter

Day Twenty Two: 'Winter Solstice Sonnet' by Lucy Lepchani

'Winter Solstice Sonnet'

Outshone by Christmas and its Light,

by tinsel, feasts and festive cheer,

the shortest day and longest night

takes shadowed place in turning year.

Our ancestors marked out this time

when winter shook the barren land,

and to this sunrise, they aligned

solstice stone circles that still stand

and welcome back sustaining sun.

Our ancestors resilience

to winter’s hardships were hard won

by wits, and skill, and brilliance.

Our heritage: yielded from their strife,

that we may cherish gifts of life.

Lucy Lepchani

Day Twenty One: 'The Songs Say It All' by Dermot Glennon

'The Songs Say It All'

This is christmas
and what have I done
another year over
another year old
and I will be lonely this christmas
lonely and cold
but not lonely enough
as stuck in a house
full of cheery people
glass in hand
and a niece on my knee
hungover so bad
and all she wants is book after book
after cuddle after snuggle
after read her a story
to the quiet dirge of McGowan
and if I get elected
I'll stop the cavalry
The nephews want the monster
to chase them through the house
and the older children
wanting to fleece me at cards
a meal too big for a fragile me
and a voice saying home now
home; you need sleep.

Dermot Glennon

Day Twenty: 'Winter' by Zelda Chappel

'Winter'

I wake up to the smell of yesterday’s coffee

now cold with its tobacco-like smell and watch

through cold glass as spiders build their webs

between the fronds where sage flowers, once

purple lit, now whither in the change of seasons.

The sun becomes refracted through clouds,

thick and round behind the falling shards,

as they project themselves with soft edges and

splay out towards the dampened ground, warmth

long absent, burying light in lieu of spring.

Winter plunges the world into a premature

darkness, the infrequency of the moon’s light

offering little but a bareness tinged blue with cold

so stark it turns the world to monochrome, colour

drained and left to hibernate until Spring’s return.

Zelda Chappel